The most recent episode of Fox’s Gotham is finally upping the ante. This episode is the first one that felt fast-paced throughout, with high stakes and decisions that seem to actually matter.

Story-wise, we get an awesome culmination of everything that’s happened so far, which, it turns out, has been planned by Falcone and Penguin. Whose side Penguin is truly on is anyone’s guess, but ultimately, I bet it turns out to be his own. Although the Falcone and Maroni crime families are still in power by the time Bruce returns from training, but Penguin must still split off on his own. It will be cool to see how this plays out, as Penguin’s story has been the most interesting villain in the show so far.

Speaking of villains, we get another one of Gotham’s Rogues gallery added to the story, in the form of Victor Zsasz. This character, a personal favorite of mine, had a pretty solid fight scene, and held true to the whole tally-mark M.O. However, the character was already an established assassin by the time of the episode. This means that his origin story- a young billionaire who lost his fortune gambling against Penguin, driving him into a homicidal madness- can’t be done. I really expected Zsasz’s loss of his inheritance to the Penguin to be what helps Penguin on his rise to power, but clearly, this will not be the case.

The episode has finally begun to tie plot lines together between characters, as I’ve been asking for from the beginning. Thus, the choppy cuts and short scenes from the first few episodes have begun to take the form of longer, more developed conversations and action sequences, which has certainly helped with character development and overall entertainment. Finally, the show can be driven by its characters as well as its plot; earlier, the loose plot structure wasn’t enough to carry it.

There’s still a lot of campiness to the script- some cheesy lines that belong in Adam West’s Batman. Fish Mooney is still over-acting. These problems, though, are starting to take the backseat to an overall fun watch. It’s far from perfect, but there are worse things to be watching on TV.

What did you think of the episode? How do you feel about the changes to Zsasz? Let us know in the comments!